9 Schoolchildren in China were stabbed to death

While walking back home from school, nine children were stabbed to death and ten were injured in Northern China and is reported as one of the most horrifying attacks in the country recently.

A person named Zhao; a 28-year-old from the Zhaojiashan village has been suspected for the crime and arrested.

Among the late children were two boys and seven girls, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing local police. Their ages have not been revealed but it is known that middle schoolers in China fall between the ages of 12 and 15. The children who were injured were taken to a hospital, Mizhi County’s public security bureau in Shaanxi province said.

The suspect told the authorities that he hated his classmates because he had been bullied when he was a student at the school, and planned to kill people on Friday with a dagger, the bureau said.

It has been noted that mass stabbings are common in China. Schoolchildren have been easy targets for attackers. In January 2017, a man attacked 11 children with a kitchen knife in a kindergarten in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

In February, in a crowded shopping centre in Beijing, a woman was killed by a man and he also injured 12 others.

The authorities in China have tried to manage this increasingly worrying situation by increasing security around schools and activists have demanded more information for the causes of these incidents.

A possible reason why violent crimes have risen in recent decades in the country could be because it’s economy has grown and the wealth equality gap has improved. Mental health issues have been on a rise as shown by studies, with some related to stress as life becomes more fast-paced and a decline in support systems.